1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to browsing and database technology and, more particularly, to image browsing and image database technology.
2. Background of the Invention
Research is being performed to determine improved techniques for the representation of various types of data in a database for purposes of efficient and intuitive browsing or searching of the data. For example, some researchers have investigated the organization of objects, such as images, based on the similarities of the images. This approach is based on the model that humans perceive image data based on similarities, and thus, such an approach for a computer-implemented technique would provide a more intuitive approach.
MultiDimensional Scaling (MDS) is a well-known technique for representing various types of data in a spatial arrangement that is based on similarity or dissimilarity data. In particular, MDS can be used as a technique for storing objects, such as images, as a relative set of nodes in a low dimensional space (with respect to the size of the set). The relative location of the nodes is dependent upon the object similarities or dissimilarities, which are interpreted as a set of distances between the nodes. The object similarities or dissimilarities can be determined by a variety of techniques, which can then be used to determine the set of distances between the nodes in the MDS space.
However, MDS is a computationally expensive technique. In particular, for image databases, MDS can be impractical due to its global nature, which requires extensive matrix processing. For example, the typical MDS techniques may not be practical for larger image databases (e.g., on the order of hundreds or thousands of images). Moreover, the typical MDS techniques do not necessarily provide biologically plausible techniques for the spatial representation of data, and in particular, do not allow for intuitive browsing of, for example, images in an image database.